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Interest in Ferrwood Music Camp has been so great that organizers have had to turn some registrants away this summer.

“This is a record year. There are 102 campers,” said Phil Latella, volunteer camp director. “A good year is 80.”

The last time he can remember so many students at the Drums facility was when he was a student and the camp was under the direction of its late founder, the Rev. Joseph Ferrara.

“It’s crazy, because we don’t advertise basically at all. It’s all word of mouth,” Latella said.

Because of the demand, organizers are considering whether to tack another week onto the two-week camp. Registration is being taken online for the week of July 20 at www.ferrwood.org. If enough students register — and enough volunteers can be found — Latella said the third week will happen.

The camp is held each July and is sponsored by the Commission on Economic Opportunity (CEO). Thanks to support from organizations and businesses, 52 students are attending the camp on scholarships.

Some students stay the night and others camp only for the day, but all attend morning and afternoon music lessons and have opportunities to participate in swimming, hiking and other activities.

On a recent morning, beginner students gathered on benches underneath an oak tree and learned how to play the recorder. Alexis Adams, a West Chester University music major, also showed students how to tap out a beat on individual drums.

Janina Lopez, 8, of Hazleton, had never played the instrument before. She signed up for camp, she said, wanting to learn.

“I love music,” she said.

A classmate and fellow day-camper, Nanci Major, 7, of Drums, had her eyes set on the flute.

“I played one before because my sister was in the band,” she said.

After eating breakfast, Zakary Mahalick, 11, of Sugarloaf, found a shady spot to set up a chair and music stand.

“This place is awesome,” he said of his Ferrwood experience.

An overnight camper for the second year in a row, Mahalick said he loves seeing friends and playing field games when he’s not taking oboe lessons.

He sat with instructor Lucinda Simon, of Drums, who showed him how to play in the key of “G.”

“This is tricky but he’s doing great,” Simon said.

As Mahalick played the song, “Under the Sea,” percussion students hammered out a steady beat from another part of the camp property.

“Rotate around. Make sure you’re not playing the same thing you just played,” instructor Neil Forte told students as they took turns playing snare and bass drums, woodblocks, chimes and other instruments.

Tuba and trombone players practiced underneath a white canopy, while saxophonists found a distant spot on top of a grassy knoll.

For Nadya Dereskavich, 13, of Freeland, the camp experience is nothing short of heaven.

“It’s just the instruments and the people all around you,” she said. “It’s the atmosphere all around.”

While campers take classes on one “main” instrument, they have opportunities to practice on other instruments or take additional music classes in their free time. Free time also means the chance to socialize with friends, play field games or use an on-site Slip ’N Slide.

Time is also spent chatting over meals in the camp’s dining hall, where kitchen volunteers Diane Zecker, Rena Bicking and Jillian Major prepared breakfast one recent morning. The three have daughters enrolled in the camp.

“Once you are here, you just want to keep coming back,” Bicking said.

“You don’t even know the kids are here. They’re so well behaved and they’re having a ball,” Major said.

Latella, who is principal of Heights-Terrace Elementary/Middle School in Hazleton, said campers will gather at the end to perform for family and friends.

He said Ferrwood staff, volunteers and a memory from long ago keep him coming back year after year.

“When Father Joe had this camp, he said to us, ‘I’m not here to make you good musicians. I am here to make good people,’” he said. “That stuck with me through my life.”

The Greater Hazleton Philharmonic Society had offered the music camp for youths at Ferrwood for years. When the CAN DO Community Foundation completed a 10-year restoration project at the camp in 2012, CEO stepped up to offer the camp in 2013 and 2014. The Philharmonic is not hosting any event at Ferrwood this summer or in the near future, according to a recent online post on the Philharmonic’s Facebook page.

“(Ferrwood’s) purpose is better served under the CEO organization,” the post reads.

The CAN DO Community Foundation, with help from Nancy Stasko and Gary Lamont, also helps secure Ferrwood scholarship funding from organizations in Hazleton.

jwhalen@standardspeaker.com

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